A Perfect Selection

To the Editor:

I was flying home last week from Minnesota reading the American Way, the magazine of American Airlines. The story that had captured my attention was about Cirque du Soleil the acrobatic performers so popular in Vegas and other venues. As I scanned the page I was surprised to see an advertisement for a fertility clinic boasting the doctoral qualifications and intelligence of the egg donors who have contributed to the clinic. Qualified, intelligent, and successful eggs available for the jet-setting crowd that has the money and appetite for crafting smart and talented offspring.

I look at my four children, colored by the gene pool mixology of my flawed self and that of my practically perfect wife (OK, my wife is perfect, I just don’t want her to know!) and think, if only I had more money I might ensure the outcome of PhDs for all, great singing voices, and tap ability for the preselected, perfectly orthodontured children, who will always love me.

The Catholic Church struggles to help the world see that life is precious, however the advertisement for the clinic which has as its tag line “Life Begins at our Clinic,” suggests that it is not so much precious, as it is for sale. I always thought life begins in the womb through the gift of God. Also the notion that life begins from the moment the technicians fertilize an egg is somewhat contrary to the “freedom to choose” philosophy espoused by the “clinic crowd” when disposing of the superfluous embryos destined to become my next Alzheimer treatment. Well it’s just too confusing for a simple mind like mine.

If it is in the American Way magazine it must be OK? Right! And Kerry is Catholic? Right!

Dan O’Connor

5 Sawmill Ridge Road, Newtown                          October 26, 2004